A Pirates' Soul
by dab-of-paint
Summary: Mari wasn't a normal girl by a long shot – dying, getting thrown into another world, living again and realising you aren't even close to home does that to you. A calm new life was her plan. A pirates life and her own crew wasn't. [Captain!SI-OC, Lots of OCs!]
1. What should not have been

**Hello dear fellow fanfiction-people. This is my first story in _years_. This is more or less an experiment that got out of hand and now I can't think of anything else. So this stuff needs to get out of my head and into the internet - because of reasons. **

**If you want to know where I will be going with this fanfiction: I was inspired by "Race for One Piece" by Teruul (a true masterpiece if I may say so).**

 **The cast will mostly be OCs, later on in the New World this little crew of misfits will meet the Straw Hats and Co.**

 **[edit] Well. No. I decided it'll be more fun if the meet some of the 'normal' cast before the New World-Saga begins. Drabbles because I'm mostly learning to write something worthwhile in english, which isn't my main language.**

 **[edit] I'm actually trying to lengthen the chapters ;)**

 **Please be gentle - I'll try to create something interesting to read, but I cannot promise you'll like this story.  
**

 **Small note: I do try to avoid mary-sueing!**

 **Disclaimer: One Piece isn't mine. Sadly.**

* * *

 _What should not have been..._

* * *

She heard the engine of a car, honking, screeching of tires.

Searing pain raced up her spine. Screaming. Cursing. A siren blared.

And then:

Silence.

When she came to, her senses were dull. Her head swam and everything seemed muffled and slow. Neither her arms nor her legs moved according to her wishes. Panic swelled up in her chest and she tried screaming, speaking, croaking – nothing. She couldn't even feel her lips.

 _What's happening? Where am I? I can't see!_

Sometime later – much later – she came to the conclusion that she was trapped in her own body.

The accident must have cut her off from the outside. Her parents had to be worried. She promised she'd be home by twelve.

There shouldn't have been this much traffic at an hour like that.

There shouldn't have been a problem with crossing a road.

There shouldn't have been that much sheer _pain_.

There shouldn't have been true and _utter darkness_ and _blankness_ and- she didn't **want** to be **trapped**.

And . . . she was

 **So _scared_!  
**

 _She didn't know how very wrong she was with her assumption of a fate with locked-in-syndrome..._


	2. What a strange way to start

**Disclaimer: One Piece isn't mine.**

* * *

 _What a strange way to start_

* * *

On the 20th May, at exactly 2 o'clock AM, a baby was born. Small puffs of hair the purest of white, eyes a strange concentric pattern in dull grey. Her parents were shocked, the old wise witch of the village delighted by her coloring.

Mari – that was the name given to the newborn babe.

Charly – that was the name of the twenty year old woman that woke in the body of said babe.

A currently half-crazed, horror-filled woman that still couldn't believe that _finally she could really see something and feel more than constricting darkness and then she_ _ **cried her heart out in loud pitiful wails.**_

And she didn't stop until exhaustion took what little senses she had away.


	3. Childhood Memories

**Disclaimer: One Piece isn't mine.**

* * *

 _Childhood Memories_

* * *

Mari was a quiet child. She was well-behaved, did what she was told and helped where she could. The four-year-old was a delight for the middle-aged couple that tried so long for their very own little one.

Yes, she was strangely clever for her age and her colouring wasn't ordinary and sometimes she looked positively _haunted_.

But she was theirs'.

And – Mari thought – they were _**hers** '_.

Because she got a second chance and she would treasure this second time, this second _life_ time above everything.


	4. The time before

**Disclaimer: One Piece isn't mine.**

* * *

 _The time before_

* * *

It hadn't been easy to accept her situation.

The first two years in her new body were frankly horrifying. Sometimes she thought about the _blankness_ before and she would shiver and cry for hours on end.

Her new parents had worried and fretted and she had wept bitter tears for a life that was just _gone_.

But she was getting better. She was healing, slowly but surely. The confusion and fear that came with being reincarnated didn't leave her entirely. There was always that lingering terror right before sleep took her.

Right before she went back into an abyss.

Mari concluded that the time before her birth was a nightmare inducing time filled with _nothing_. She'd been denied any real outside contact for at least nine month.

And don't get her started on her birth – conciously witnessing every minute of pain, slime and other stuff – no. That wasn't a nice experience.


	5. For the love of

**Disclaimer: One Piece isn't mine.**

* * *

 _For the love of...!_

* * *

At the age of six, her dad took her outside for the first time.

Naturally she'd wonder why her parents wouldn't take her with them when they left to go to the market or anywhere not inside their small home, really.

Seeing people staring at her in awe clued her in that they probably didn't want her suffering the wrath of star-struck fans.

It was horrible.

A lot of passer-by's gave her flowers, some woman even gifted her with a basket of fruits. She was completely out of her depth. And increasingly embarrassed.

"Dad, what's going on!?"


	6. Explanation of something impossible

**Thank you for** **favoriting this story! :)**

 **[edit] Sorry, it's Devils' not Demons'.**

 **Disclaimer: One Piece isn't mine.**

* * *

 _Explanation of something impossible_

* * *

They knew.

She didn't exactly understand how, but they did.

Her father dragged her to a creepy half-blind woman and proceeded to explain, very patiently, that she'd probably get some strange memories from a lifetime before this one. This, he said, would happen when she was about – oh, let's see – about twenty fucking years old.

 _I kid you not._

"What." She stared, her gaze completely unimpressed.

"My dear little one-", the old hag started.

"No wait, stop, wait a minute-". Mari started waving her hands around frantically. "You mean to tell me that it's a normal thing to be reincarnated?!"

"For us, it is." The old lady sighed, and drew a gnarly hand through her receding hairline. "It has been about fifty years now, mind you, that a child with snow-white hair and eyes like the ripples of a pond was born in this village."

She waited silently for her to continue. Being increasingly aware that something went wrong – like really really really wrong – with her death and reincarnation thing. She was conscious from the very start, for god's sake!

"The story of our people goes way back into the void years-"

 _Whatever that meant…_

"And your destiny is to become someone great! In a few years you will make a great impact in this world and all of us will help you find greatness!"

 _What_. That was a lot of 'great'.

"We were gifted by the great Tree of Devils, the holy mother of all life, with a fruit – able to make their user very powerful. As soon as you are deemed ready, as soon as your memories come back, you will get the chance to make a great impact on this world-"

 _What_. No really. What the hell was going on?

"Stop." Both her father and the hag stared at her.

"Mari, don't you understand-"

She interrupted him immediately.

"No, I mean yes. I do understand. Because I knew pretty much from the start that I was reincarnated."

Now it was their turn to deadpan:

"What."


	7. Bonkers

**It's getting interesting now. Next chapter, she'll be off. And soon after she'll meet her first crewmate! :)**

 **Disclaimer: One Piece isn't mine.**

* * *

 _Bonkers_

* * *

After her admission, everyone went pretty much bonkers.

Well, more bonkers than before.

It wasn't that hard to make them believe her and soon after, she was pushed from person to person inside the relatively small village.

Go to Cera, down the road, she'll teach you to sew ripped fabric. Next it's on to Papay, he's a fisherman, there you'll learn to catch, gut and later on cook a fish – because, apparently Papay was also a great cook. And look- what's-his-name is really good at punching people in the _face_ , so go learn that.

Yeah, the next few years were a little hectic in that regard. She mostly went along with everything, because she was pretty much outvoted.

Two years in, with her being 8 years – or 28, depends, really – something interesting happened.

She ate a fruit.

Well, it was shoved into her mouth before she could protest, and she almost chocked on it.

And now here she sat.

Letting a pebble float. Float right. Float left. Float away. Float back.

She took a look into the puddle right beside her and glared at the concentric circles inside her eyes.

Mari was completely _unimpressed_.

She was a goddamn Pain-from-Naruto-rip-off.

 _Great._


	8. Goodbye!

**I'm so happy! ~doing a happy little dance~ :)**

 **Thank you for following and favouriting this story!**

 **Disclaimer: One Piece isn't mine.**

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 _Goodbye!_

* * *

The day of her departure came faster than she anticipated.

The 17-year old woman learned a lot in the time she was on the small island Hallibell. Apart from fighting and plain surviving in this world, she learned – through the paper, delivered from a goddamn _seagull_ \- from marines and pirates and _finally_ got that she wasn't even in her _own_ world. She wasn't a fan of One Piece, but admittedly she was a little slow in realising that a _fruit_ gave someone some fucked up powers, pirates roamed the sea and all those really big clues she should have understood pretty fast.

Well she didn't. Mari was a little dense sometimes.

Back to the matter at hand: She was almost off. Sailing on her own on the huge, huge sea, having adventures, fighting for her life and – and she was so goddamn done with this shit and she'd love to just stay at home and go fishing for a living.

But, alas, she was pressured into leaving because she had to be some great person that did some great things. Yeah, well, she figured sailing around for a few years and coming back like 'nothing to do out there' would probably be enough. She just wanted to laze around and have her own happy little calm life.

Mari liked it calm. Calm was happy. Calm was safe. Calm wasn't a fucking sea-king wanting to eat her _alive_.

She'd do it somehow, wait around on an island, be a lazy butt and come back looking apologetic.

 _I won't be drawn into some strange fucked up situation!_

She tightened the fasteners of her pack, drew her shoulder-length hair into a tight pony-tail and squared her shoulders.

 _Here goes nothing._

And she was off with the hope of normalcy and boredom.

* * *

 **Next on: The first crewmate to an unwilling captain!**


	9. Funky Eyes

**Hello there :)**

 **First crewmember!**

 **Now I have a few questions for you, because I'm not really sure what sounds best:**

 **First: _What title should Mari get from the marines?_**

 **Second: _What do you think Maris' powers should be called? (Like: Gravity Gravity Fruit or something?)_**

 **Third: _Do you have suggestions for the title of her pirate crew?_**

 **Thank you for your reviews, favourites and follows! It's really motivating to write something you people like :)**

* * *

 _Funky Eyes_

* * *

"Wow! You sure got funky eyes!"

Mari startled badly and almost bumped into someone.

"What?"

She looked down, down and down and there before her stood a small child. She seemed to be around 12-years old.

"Your eyes. They're funky."

 _The hell is wrong with this kid?!_

"Well –", Mari sputtered. "And you're a midget!"

Silence.

"Yeah, that's true. Doesn't make your eyes any less funky though." The girl threw long luxurious blond tresses over her shoulder and shrugged.

 _I so don't wanna deal with that._ Mari made a face, turned tail and strode off.

"Sooo… what are you doing in this tiny shithole called village?"

"Wha- why're you following me?!" Mari didn't stop, just tried to lengthen her strides and maybe get away from the newly dubbed The Little Pest. Capital letters included.

"You seem pretty interesting and right now I'm searching for someone interesting." The Little Pest said and smiled cutely.

 _That's a really wicked glint in those eyes_ , Mari thought and grimaced.

"I'm not. Interesting, I mean. I'm boring. Now you can search for someone who's interesting. So shoo. Go away."

The Little Pests' smile drew into a terrifying grin. "Ohh noo~", she drawled. "I think you're the one. We're gonna be the best of friends, have a lot of adventures and have a lot of fun, too.

Ne', captain?"

Mari drew a blank.

* * *

 **Explanations are following - maybe in the next chapter, maybe a lot later :D**


	10. Annabelle - The Little Pest

**Hello :) I don't know how it happend but apparently ff didn't update the update-date yesterday. So I want to hint at the last chapter if you haven't read it yet.**

 **Penny for your thoughts? :) Suggestions for adventures, characters and so on? I do have a plan how this story will turn out and the crew is pretty set in my mind, but I do love to use ideas of a creative mind :)**

 **Thank you very much for reading this story!**

 **Disclaimer: One Piece isn't mine.**

* * *

 _Annabelle - The Little Pest_

* * *

Her name was Annabelle, she was actually 26-years-old and ate the child-child-fruit when she was 12.

Apparently, she was a great navigator and had a lot of experience – also, she was from the same village Mari came from.

 _Which isn't that surprising. She's crazy, too,_ Mari thought.

It was already late. The sun had set and her and the kid-who's-actually-an-adult sat inside of a small, smelly room of the local inn.

After hysterically running away from Annabelle and trying to set sail with her tiny boat – which didn't work because there was absolutely no wind – she resigned herself and did the sensible thing: She spoke with the little hellion and tried to talk some sense into her – which also didn't work.

"Captain, we should probably head out tomorrow. The next island isn't that far away and maybe we can find another crewmate!"

* * *

Annabelle was enthusiastic.

She finally found the one she searched for, after waiting for years and years. And she would make sure the will of The Tree of Devils would be adhered to.

She wouldn't let her people down after they adopted her so generously.

"'M still not your captain", her horribly unenthusiastic charge mumbled into her pillow.

 _We'll see._ Annabelle smiled.

* * *

 **If it's getting boring, or everything moves to fast: please tell me, I want to become a better writer and need all the help I can get! Thank you!**


	11. Jaja-Islands - Part 1

**Hello people :) New chapter - a little longer than most.**

 **Have fun :)**

 **Disclaimer: One Piece isn't mine.**

* * *

 _Jaja-Islands - Part 1_

* * *

The steady rocking of the small sailing boat made for a great rhythm to drift off to sleep. And that's mostly all the activity Mari partook in. Sometimes she grunted, shifted and got into another ridiculous sleeping position.

There wasn't much space for two people, even if the second passenger was a small girl, barely reaching 1,55 meters on her tippy toes. Not to mention the several bags full of non-perishable food.

Even though Annabelle was a fairly good navigator, she couldn't make the time go by faster and her only companion was asleep almost all the time, except for the obligatory stuffing her face or taking a leak. Annabelle wrinkled her nose daintily. She already wasn't sure that this was the right thing to do.

She'd been part of a pirate crew before, only as a small fry mind you, but she didn't see half the motivation and fearlessness her last captain showed in the woman before her.

Maybe she could get a refund? Or she could try to search for a substitute to present the people from Hallibell in a few years. A little eye surgery or something of the like and a little bleach for the hair should do the trick.

She stared at the white haired lazy-butt with crinkled eyebrows.

She'd give her the chance to prove herself. The villagers thought she could be great someday, so she would endure a little slothfulness on her captains' part. For now, that is.

Several days later saw both Mari and Annabelle in a state that was a little worse for wear. They both didn't have the chance to get clean and their drinking water was slowly diminishing.

Therefore, they were ecstatic to see a small island in the distance and made the extra effort to support the sails with a little paddling.

A lush forest, filled with chirping and occasional growling greeted them.

Mari disembarked first and moored her small ship on a halfway broken tree near the shallow bay.

"Where do you think we are?" she asked half-way through a jaw-cracking yawn.

Annabelle understood something like "Wrrr doooh yaaar thuuuunk whhere aaaaa?" and responded with a small shrug of her shoulders. "We're at the outskirts of the west blue and Hallibell is already a few miles off, so we should be either at the Jaja-Islands or the Bluepug-Desert."

"This doesn't look like a desert."

"Yes, captain obvious. So we _are_ at the Jaja-Islands." Annabelle rolled her eyes. "You're so slow! Slowpoke." The look Mari shot her was a mix of confused dog and offended cat and - combined with the swirly pattern of her eyes – made for a pretty constipated look.

Without further ado, Annabelle took the lead and marched right into the thick conifer forest. Mari followed with only a small pause. She'd probably get lost and never find her way out of the woods, if she didn't keep pace with the blonde.

After tripping over a few roots (give her a break, on Hallibell there was no such thing as a forest!), Mari saw the first signs of civilization. It was a shield, dangling half-heartedly on an old stick that was rammed into the ground. "Jaja-Beach.", Annabelle read. "We are in the middle of a forest. Whyever would somebody call this place beach?"

"Dunno.", was the short reply from Mari. She was currently engrossed with the big spider that slowly crawled up a strand of Annabelles' hair.

Screeching ensued.

* * *

 **Thank you for reading this story :)**


	12. Jaja-Islands - Part 2

**Hello everyone :)**

 **New chapter is here! And it's longer than the others :-)**

 **Have fun reading!**

* * *

 _Jaja-Islands - Part 2_

* * *

The narrow path they followed slowly grew wider and the forest around them thinner. Occasionally, Annabelle noticed squirrels and other little critters hustling about on the side of the so-called road. While she tried hard to be attentive – constantly vigiliant, really - her captain ambled along behind with half-lidded eyes and annoying complaints about her poor feeeeet and man, do these feeeet hurt like a bitch! And Annabellle, hey, whenarewetheremyfeeeet…

She was going nuts. And sooner or later she would propably -cough- accidently -cough- kill this damn dimwit! Luckily, her salvation came within reach before she could finish her plan to bury the corpse as unobstrusivley as possible.

"Hey, you see that?", Mari asked with crinkled eyebrows. "There's a village ahead."

Small huts, lined with neatly arranged bushes as a division between properties sprawled in a loose quadratic formation. The tallest trees they'd seen on this island until now served as a thick, stable wall between the wildlife and the villagers. Mari squinted against the sun and noticed neatly spanned nets between some conifers.

 _Strange people,_ she thought. _Does that even work against bigger predators?_ And then, as a second thought, slightly tinged in dread: _ARE there bigger predators on this island?!_

Slowly trotting along the gravelroad, Annabelle and Mari reached the second stop of their travels. Only a hand full of people mingled near a stonewell and whispered quietly to each other. They threw anixious glances over their hunched shoulders and seemed pale faced and drawn. "Hello!", Annabelle chirped politley and gave her best innocent smile. The villagers – three wiry men and two old women – flinched violently. "You can't be here!", one of the men pressed quietly. His eyes swished back and forth.

"Strangers get eaten pretty fast around here...", one of the ladys said softly and stared hard at them. "If you don't want to die, you should run away."

Mari and Annabelle looked at each other. "So,", Mari started. "That's that. Let's go.", and she made to turn around and head back the way they came.

Annabelle gaped. "What-" She grabbed her captain by her bicep and pulled her back hard. "You hear that?! Adventure! And saving innocent people! And you're just running away?" Her voice took on a cutting edge: "You've got a mission, goddammit!" The whitenette stilled. Then she looked over her shoulder, and said with an easy-going smile on her face:

"I don't really care."

* * *

They parted ways.

The navigator was shaken up. Yes, Mari made it pretty clear that she had no ambition to fulfill her role as the Fated One from Hallibell. The fruit was wasted on her, she decided.

 _They could've taken anyone. Even_ _that guy that liked to punch stuff - what was his name again?_

But they took Mari. Just because of her stupid hair and stupid eyes and stupid everything!

Annabelle huffed. Her current residence was in tune with the whole doom and gloom feeling of the village and did nothing to liften her mood. She waited all this time and now: this. Her so called captain made a run for it just because of some superstisious dolds. Most probably, there wasn't even something to fear.

The blondes back straightend. So what if that dumb white-haired freak didn't want to help people because of some stupid 'will to have a normal life'-bullshit! She could help. Yeah, she was one of the good ones. One of the good pirates. She had pillaged and stolen and lied – that's what pirates do. But she had a good heart. She knew this.

Annabelle stood, grabbed her coat, checked the two daggers at her side and rushed out of the small guest room.

She could do this!

* * *

Her normally slightly slouched gait was abnormally straight. White hair partly loose from constantly wiping her hand through them and a frown on her face.

Mari was conflicted. She didn't want this damn greatness-stuff. And she sure as hell didn't want to be a pirate captain. Her? A pirate captain – hah! But…

Yeah. But. Annabelle had somewhat counted on her. She was bossy and pretty unamused with her outlook on life and all in all irritating and naggy and… something like a friend, really. And Mari didn't want to lose more in life. This life anyways. The last one, the friends and family she lost, ripped a gaping hole into a part of her heart. She only overcame the frequent nightterrors via deep meditation. Most of the time that was fine – she slept better than anyone she knew. Only sometimes, she couldn't keep her eyes closed. And then she'd see those she lost back then...

She was happy for her new chance at life. She had a lot of almost friends back at Hallibell. But Annabelle was the first one outside of _home._ And somehow that was special in a weird kind of way.

But the whitenette knew she was weird - which might be one of the reasons she liked normalcy so much.

Hopefully Annabelle didn't do something stupid. Like trying to take on whatever haunted this village.

Mari slowed.

 _She'd do something like that, wouldn't she?_

* * *

Annabelle was honestly terrified out of her wits. She was so very sure. So very sure that this was nothing more than a dumb wild dog or wolf. That, she could take on. She hadn't thought that she would trip over a megalomaniac with a 2 meter tall wolf-demon-thing bearing down on a black-haired, muscular man with a naginata.

She silently crept behind some bushes. _Quiet, quiet, quiet,_ she repeated inside her head. Wouldn't do to get the attention of two obviously stronger individuals. _Dammit, dammit, dammit…_.

A twig cracked underneath her boots.

 _Oh holy mother of-_

It was a very near miss. A blade embedded itself only millimeters above her head and a soft whimper left her. _Not good._

"Come out, little mouse!", the megalomaniac with ridiculous pink hair crowed. "The more the merrier!"

Having no other choice, the blonde bolted out of her hiding place, just as another blade made home with the treebark just to the left of her.

Black-haired, already bloody, muscleman cursed. "A child!" He glared at the pink-haired menace. "Leave her out of this! She's only a kid!"

Annabelle almost let out an indigant cry of 'no, goddammit, I'm a woman!', but held it in at the last second. Maybe she could get out of this. Maybe-

It happened so very fast. The azure eyes of the wolf-tamer narrowed, his lips parted in a feral snarl, filled with glee and he threw himself at her with crazy speed. At the same time, the staff-weapon-wielder took off and got in front of her, blocking the wild sword-strike of his opponent at the very last second.

The naginata flew away and then there was nothing between the black-haired man and two very pointy and very sharp swords.

Muscleman threw his arms out, snarling loudly: "You won't get her!"

Annabelle cowered behind, arms protectivly shielding her face and upper body.

 _This was it._ They both thought.

And then.

And then a motherfucking _tree_ flew out of nowhere and nailed the pink menace right in the face.


	13. Jaja-Islands - Part 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece**

* * *

 _Jaja-Islands - Part 3_

* * *

Xiao Ming had seen a lot in his life. He knew people that could throw giant boulders or - like in this case - giant trees.

Most of them were men with muscles on top of their muscles and thick beards that seemed to have their own eco-system. He expected a mountain of a man to step in his line of sight, maybe with an enormous axe on his back and arms as thick as the tree he threw.

He did not expect a slip of a woman with white hair and disconcerting eyes.

Behind him, the child let out a soft, disbelieving: "Captain?"

Xiao blinked at the term, but dismissed it pretty fast. It was more interesting to find their saviour.

Xiao did a great job at trying to see behind the white haired girl. It might be that the real tree-throwing behemoth stood somewhere behind her... or rather behind some trees. The girl was much to scrawny to hide a giant behind her frame, really.

His current nemesis - the terror of this village that went by the creative name of one 'Jacko the Ripper' - groaned loudly. His pet-wolf crouched low and flashed pointy teeth at this new offender.

"You should run!", Xiao whisper-yelled to the whitenette. Surely, their helper would show himself soon.

"You goddamn bitch! Chacko, rip her apart!", wheezed Jacko. His nose was strangely flat against his face and a few teeth were missing. Chacko, the wolf, true to his loyal nature, jumped -

and Xiao did not really know how to describe the next few seconds -

suddenly, the giant animal got slapped around the clearing like a punching bag that got between the wrong kind of invisible, overpowered boxers.

As soon as Jacko got to his feet, he got his own pet thrown in his face and lost consciousness with one last pathetic wheeze.

And then there was silence for a few seconds.

"Captain!" The kid he tried to shield slipped out behind him and made a mad dash for the white haired woman that was just lowering her one raised hand back to her side.

The blonde came to a halt right in front of her and stared into two very tired looking eyes.

* * *

"'M glad you're alright.", was the first thing her captain said and she did have half a mind to just hit her and after that hug her until her back broke.

"You actually searched for me. And you aren't as weak as I thought!", Annabelle said. Her face showed a mixture of happiness and reluctant respect.

She hadn't known what fruit the current Chosen One would get. And she also didn't expect her to have such a good grasp of her abilities, what with her being a constantly lazy bum.

Mari shrugged and looked away, a tiny blush appearing on her pale face. "Well... yeah. I guess I did." Another shrug.

In the awkward silence that followed, someone cleared their throat.

Both Annabelle and her captain threw an inquisitive glance at tall, dark and muscly - so dubbed in Annabelle's head.

"What", and he emphasized this word heavily, "does a small child have to do on a pirate crew?!"

Mari hurried to explain: "I'm not the captain!" Well, she seemed to try, anyways. Quite badly in fact.

The mysterious man seemed to grow two shades more red in his face.

"You can't just corrupt an innocent soul and force her to join your band of violent, disgusting pirates!"

As her captain tried valiantly to appease the new threat with denials of her position and a lot of sharp hand gestures, Annabelle tried not to scream. Tried being the key-word.

"Shut the hell up, you imbecile!", exploded the blonde and got as much into the dark-haired man's face as she could with her small frame. "I'm not a goddamn child and you would do well to remember this! I'm the navigator on this crew and my captain just saved both our asses!"

* * *

For one short moment, Xiao really had no idea whatsoever to do in the face of such wrath – from such a tiny human being to boot. He'd accepted the idea that their unlikely saviour was actually a small slip of a woman. That was okay. A little creepy – what with the weird telekinetic ability to slap people around with hand gestures, but okay nonetheless. What wasn't okay however, was the fact that this white-haired chick seemed to be the head of a goddamn pirate crew and she got a child involved in her nefarious lifestyle.

Xiao blinked.

Once, Twice, then: "Yeah well, that might be right, but it doesn't justify- wait. You are a child. You look something like 10?!" He wasn't the best at estimating the age of children – they all rather looked the same to him actually but he wasn't that bad at it!

The blonde huffed. "I'll explain that later. Let's rope this bastard and his mutt up and drag them to the village. They were the ones terrorized, so they should get their chance at revenge."

"Alright...", Xiao hadn't exactly forgotten the reason for his former rage, but he was rather keen on a shower and probably a few bandages. He might have a little flesh wound or two.

The whitenettes' quite voice halted both man and child-woman in their endeavour: "They might kill them both."

"If they aren't dead already, after you threw them around like ragdolls", Blondie deadpanned.

The other pirate had the decency to look slightly embarrassed. She coughed and then threw another glance at the wolf and his keeper.

The child stepped in the line of her sight. Her voice was completely serious. "You are the captain." Whitey made to interrupt but Blondie bulldozed right over her attempted "-but!-". "You make the decisions. The decisions to laze about, the decisions to have fun, the decisions to explore, but also the hard decisions. The decisions that may end with someone badly hurt or maimed or dead." She took a deep breath.

"It's your call."

"What would you do?" Her answer was near silent. "You're the navigator, but as a part of the crew you have all the right to advice your captain, don't you?"

* * *

Annabelle almost let out a loud whoop of victory, but it wasn't really the time for that. The mood was particularly sombre and she knew ridicule at this point would most likely end in her rather accepting captain to make a sharp turn in the other direction - straight into denial. Again.

"Well, either you finish them and give them a mercy killing, we find a dinghy to push them out to the sea, so they can terrorize some other people or we give them to the villagers – which could end in torture, death or nothing of the aforementioned for the idiot and his idiot wolf."

Mari looked over to their prisoners contemplatively. "Or we give them the wolf and let the guy go..." She trailed off, clearly unconvinced of her own idea.

"You should give them to the villagers.", said muscly-man with his bushy eyebrows drawn together sharply. "Many of them were killed by these two and they should make the decision."

Annabelle frowned unhappily. That guy wasn't part of the crew. He had no right to influence Maris' decision. Before she could open her mouth to give him a piece of her mind, Mari spoke.

"Well...", here she stopped and took a deep breath while looking between their hostages, Annabelle and muscly-man. "I think we should bring them down to the village. If it looks like they will torture those two senseless, then we will take them with us and bring them to the next marine base. They can do whatever they want with them then." She looked uneasy for a moment. "I don't think they will torture them, or they probably won't torture them as much as the villagers. They have a personal grudge, while marines are... well they're marines."

Annabelle nodded. For a person with almost no ambition, that was a rather wise thing to decide.

With that decided and only a few dark glares sent in their direction by muscly-man, they dragged both captives with them.

* * *

Mari grabbed the pink-haired one around one ankle and pulled. He didn't budge. She furrowed her eyebrows. Well, that wolf was pretty heavy, no wonder really that she couldn't just pull the buried pink haired person out from underneath the heavy mammal.

She concentrated on that squishy, floaty feeling inside her belly and willed it to move through her veins. The whitenette was just about to hold her hands up and lift the wolf from its owner via cheating with devil fruit, when the dark-haired stranger grabbed the tail of the beast and maneuvered it off him.

She stared for am moment. So those muscles weren't only for show, huh? She thought faintly.

"Uh... thanks, I guess.", she murmured, only to receive a scathing stare. She backed off a step and held both hands in front of her – which, in hindsight probably wasn't a very reassuring gesture, what with her being able to throw giant trees with only the use of some hand gestures.

The man huffed and started dragging the wolf behind him. Taking this as her cue, she started manoeuvring the pink haired menace behind her. She could use her powers, but really, the villagers were scared enough as it is, they didn't need some freak levitating their biggest nightmare smack dab in the middle of their living quarters.

She spared a glance at Annabelle, whose face was mostly unreadable. The blonde caught her gaze and gave her a short, approving smile. She felt something settle in her chest. So she wasn't angry. They still were friends. Or something. That was... a relief.

It took a while for the trio to get back with their baggage while trying to not get stuck in between trees – especially the big wolf sometimes got stuck, so Mari and Annabelle pushed, while the staff-wielder pulled.

When they reached the village, Maris hair clung uncomfortably on her neck and she noticed Annabelle puffing audibly. The only one who didn't seem all that phased was the guy they followed down the uneven path.

Predictably, nobody greeted them. They moved their hostages to the middle of the huts, checked their bindings – and Annabelle nonchalantly hit the pink one over the head with a stone, when he stirred.

"Is this...", a small, reedy voice said. "Is this the demon and his beast?", there was tentative hope in the voice. Annabelle stepped forth, before the man that suddenly had appeared could actually engage Mari in dramatic speeches, probably having sensed that the whitenette was in no mood to talk.

"Yes.", Annabelle said.

Mari felt she'd done enough work for a day. Or a week. Maybe a month or two. A bed would be nice. One with soft pillows and that smelled of freshly washed sheets. She entertained the thought for a moment, thinking about the small, sturdy but loved bed in the house of her parents. (The parents here, not the ones before. She'd moved on a little... that was good, she decided)

* * *

"My captain and I managed to defeat the murderer and his pet.", she conveniently left out, that it was technically her captains' and maybe the other guys' effort only. She didn't like that guys attitude (and that he called her a child. Because she wasn't, not really, and she hated this feeling so much.).

One by one the villagers scurried out of their huts, still being fearful and flinching at every loud noise. "We thank you for your help.", the owner of the small voice they heard at the start and also the man who had insisted that they shouldn't be on this island, said. His voice took on a stronger edge, when he looked at the tied up pair behind her captain and muscly man. "We should lock those two up... Meeran, Andi, go bring those two into the mayors hut, tie them up and lock them in the storeroom!"

Annabelle took a deep breath.

"What are you going to do with them?"

"They will get their due punishment. But we won't torture or kill them if you're fearing that." His eyes looked flinty as he said that and Annabelle wasn't really reassured.

"Would you like to stay and eat? I think it is time to revive the tradition of mighty feasts inside our village!" His voice didn't get much louder at the end, but since everyone of the others was really quiet, they all heard, and a murmur went through the air. "We do not have that much provisions at the moment", he continued. "But a bonfire and a few bottles of beer as well as tea and grog are there and we would very much like to share with you. You too, young man." He tagged on graciously. Annabelle almost snorted. Heh, she perfectly managed to keep the fame to themselves. Said young man looked thunderous and glowered darkly at her. Hrmpf, as if she were afraid of him.

After the feast, the villagers were very adamant in getting both the pirates and Xiao - he'd reluctantly introduced himself - to stay the night. Which wasn't all that hard in the case of the naginata-wielding warrior, because he'd drunk about half of the amount of booze the people had in store. Mari, Annabelle noted, was really tired after using her powers for chucking around a tree and the gigantic animal. She was dozing quietly with her eyes half lidden, chin tucked in and a warm mug of grog in her hands. In true responsible adult fashion, the villagers refused to serve Annabelle beer or other alcoholic beverages which she was not amused about. She glowered. Sometimes she really hated this devil fruit business. And it wasn't as if it was her fault. She never wanted to eat that stupid thing.

Someday. Someday she would get rid of that curse... But until then, she would try her best to support the Chosen One.

Annabelle carefully took the mug out of her captains' hand. The white-haired woman murmured something, sighed and shuffled around until her head rested against the navigators shoulder.

In front of her, on the other side of the table, Xiao eyed them thoughtfully. His eyes looked a little unfocused thanks to the alcohol, but he seemed nonetheless rather alert. "So", he began. "You're a pirate."

"Yep.", she replied shortly, more concerned with adjusting her position, so her captains nose didn't poke her in the throat.

"And you're an adult in a child's body."

"Yep."

"Hm.", he hummed.

"What?!" Annabelle looked up sharply and frowned. "What exactly are you trying to ask?" She wasn't one for beating around the bush and his rather inane questions irritated her.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are you a pirate?" He nodded in the direction of Mari. "And why is she?"

Annabelle's' frown deepened. "Because the marines" - she stressed the word heavily - "are a corrupt bunch of idiots."

"Then why not join the revolutionaries?"

That made her pause. She had no real reason. It was actually just easier to get Mari into a position of captain, than find a revolutionary hideout that would take on a completely unmotivated individual like the whitenette. But she wasn't about to talk to an outsider about that. He might still be a threat to them.

"None of your business.", she settled on. Xiao didn't look offended, like she would have expected. Before he could reply, she asked him: "And what about you? Why did you have a grudge with that pink-haired guy?"

"He suppressed this village and made their life a living hell.", he told her seriously. "So you're a goody two shoes that can't keep his nose out of other peoples business." And no, she would not think about her own motivations for wanting to help these people - like she herself being a goody two shoes. Nope.

"Yeah, you could say that." He chuckled.

She squinted at him. Maybe... he seemed like a good guy. She considered him quietly.

"Join the crew." Her captain was pathetic at finding crewmates - seeing as she had no will to be a captain at all. And she'd talk about it with her as soon as she was back on her feet.

Muscle-man sputtered. "No way!"

"Why? We're not the bad guys. My captain knocked the pink menace and his killer wolf out and saved your life. You owe her."

"So you're trying to manipulate me into joining the crew by using my honour against me?" Now he seemed highly offended.

"Yep."

"You-" "Think about it! You could sail the ocean, help people and be something like a pirate-hero-muscle-guy!"

He deadpanned. "No."

"You know what. Help me get the captain inside the shack back there and then I'll leave you in peace. You can think about the offer and tell us tomorrow."

* * *

Annabelle wasn't really surprised to hear that Xiao had hightailed it out of the island, as soon as morning light hit the ground. Maybe it was for the better.

Mari was up on her feet again, looking her usual bored self and the both of them set off on their tiny dinghy with thankfully free food and drink from the thankful villagers.

They would probably never know what happened with the pink-haired villain and his wolf and they didn't ask. Sometimes it was better not to know.


	14. Pointy Things on the Island of Flowers

**Please excuse the long wait.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece**

* * *

 _Pointy Things on the Island of Flowers_

* * *

"How is our resident monster holding up?"

"She seems weaker. Her eyes have been a solid black for the last week and she is coughing regularly."

"Hmm…"

"What do you intend to do with her, your majesty?"

"I have not yet decided, but I might play with the thought, that – after the right conditioning - she would be a valuable tool to get rid of possible rebellious scum."

"Excellent thinking, your majesty."

"Are you saying I'm stupid?"

"No, no, no, your majesty, I would never-"

A sharp shot tore through the air. Silence.

"Get a new guard for the cells."

"Of course, your majesty."

* * *

"Do you see this?", Mari asked and squinted.

"What?", came the disinterested answer. Annabelle was slightly agitated today. Well, that and not really at the top of her game, if Mari interpreted the slumping line of her shoulders right. The whitenette was concerned with her navi- no, wait, friend. Not navigator, that would be too much to admit to, even in her head. She might have said that on Jaja-Island, but that was really nothing more than an overreaction to a strange guy trying to kill her naviga- friend.

"What?!", Annabelle repeated sharply and drew Maris attention back to her. Both of them sat on different sides of the small sailing dinghy that got pulled in an even speed across the vast blue sea. She didn't have the faintest clue what these sides were called. Something like raft and brig maybe? Maah, wasn't really important for what she wanted to tell Annabelle anyways.

"These clouds look really dark."

"Really? You distracted me from the 'Navigational Wonders of the Sea' for clouds? I'm the navigator, I know how dangerous weather looks li-" She slowed down when she actually looked up from her book to gaze at the really dark, really stormy looking clouds that were pointed out by Mari. Her face paled rapidly.

"Oh shit.", she breathed, throwing her book in her backpack. "We need to get 60 degrees to the north! Come on! Row, row, row!"

Scrambling to do as told, Mari almost rammed her head against the mast.

"On it!"

Annabelle hurried on furling up the sails.

They felt the first harsh wind in almost no time, and the mast gave a dangerous gnashing noise.

"Is that a tornado?!", Mari screeched, when she saw a vortex of darkish white clouds touching down on the sea and churning it in a small, but gradually bigger maelstrom. "Oh god", she moaned. She was too young to die! Been there, done that, really! She didn't need to die another painful death, one was quite enough! Thank you very much!

"C'mon keep rowing!", Annabelle screamed over the now howling wind.

Mari threw herself at Annabelle, grabbed the mast roughly and felt deep inside, gripping desperately at the floaty feelings of power and _pulled._

Protect, protect, _protect_!

The world lurched, tilted and sputtered.

* * *

They were airborne and they were falling.

Annabelle panicked. She tried to struggle out of the tight grip that held her arms at her sides and only when she looked down and saw white blouse-sleeves fluttering in the wind, she noticed that these were her captains' arms. And then she took a deep breath and actually took a good look around her. Their hair und clothes whipped in the sharp wind, but they weren't really _falling_ falling like she thought before.

They were flying.

"Oh, you're awake?", a tired voice asked right behind her. She didn't trust her own voice, so the blonde just nodded sharply.

"We're almost at an island, just… just hold on tight for a few minutes." Where the hell should she hold on? She was hanging there like a sack of potatoes and they had to look totally ridiculous at the moment, but well..

They were alive.

And her captain could fucking _fly_.

What the _hell_.

* * *

Annabelle lost track of time, but she estimated that it took only ten minutes to reach the island. Sharp cliffs surrounded it, waves crashing greedily against them. She noticed a high, spiralling tower in the distance and wondered where they'd managed to arrive now.

Mari landed them in a field full of flowers, removed her arms and flopped to the ground, looking almost boneless. A marionette with the strings cut, Annabelle mused and almost immediately shook her head. No time to be philosophical. She hurried to her captain and carefully brushed a few yellow stripes of pollen from her cheek. She was fast asleep, chest expanding and shrinking steadily.

Annabelle heaved a sigh of relief. So she probably just had that strange backlash from her powers, like she had at the feast on Jaja.

So, she thought, the facts: We are on an island that has a lot of flowers. There's a tower in the – she looked down at the compass securely fastened on her leather wristband – south. And there seemed to be a cobbled road a few meters to the left. And… they were broke. She looked around her but saw neither hide nor hair from their backpacks, or any of the sacks of food they'd had stored on the dinghy. And her captain was completely exhausted, so they were rather vulnerable right now and there really was no chance to hide, except for lying as flat as possible inside the flowerbed, so they wouldn't be seen.

She took one last suspicious look around, then laid down in the vibrant blues, reds and yellows, arms flat on her sides and resigned herself to wait.

* * *

Maris nose itched something fierce.

"HACHOOO."

"Shhh!"

"Ah, hi Annabelle.", she murmured, still pretty much running on fumes. She was so goddamn tired. Who knew how much force a tornado could have… She'd been hard pressed to keep them from getting thrown about, and tried to keep inside the eye of the storm, carefully to not get sucked into the churning winds around them.

And then, quite suddenly it had lost some of it's strength and she was able to get both Annabelle and herself out. The island in the distance had been pure luck, any farther and she might have just dropped into the sea and well, that would have been bad. Really bad.

But, she looked around herself, it seemed she'd managed to get them on land. Her nose wrinkled. There were decidedly too many flowers all around them. Her nose itched again. She stood up abruptly and smothered another sneeze in the crook of her arm.

"Are you alright?", concerned blue eyes peered at her and she smiled.

"Yeah, just a little tired."

"So, same as always." She shrugged. She was tired pretty often and she rather liked sleeping, now that she actually managed to sleep without those wretched nightmares.

"Do you know where we are?", she asked and Annabelle shrugged.

"I waited for you to wake up."

"Ah, alright. Then let's look around."

They located a cobbled road to their left and started following it. Gradually a town came into view. There was a big, light pink, star-flower-shaped shield attached to a tree that named the town as Amaririsu.

"Huh. Amaririsu.", Annabelle murmured.

Amaryllis, Mari translated in her head.

The use of languages in this world was wonky, she'd noticed pretty soon. They generally spoke english, but then there were things like this townshield that showed the japanese name. On some items there were kanji, on others it was written in the western letters.

Sometime around her tenth birthday, she even heard a visitor to Hallibell mix german words with the common english. It was wonky. This whole world was, she mused.

As they entered the town and looked at the various flowers decorating every house and street, potted, planted and growing like weeds between cracks, they also noticed the townspeople sneaking about from house to house.

They heard quiet, almost whispered conversations and saw a lot of bashful faces turning red.

"What.", Mari deadpanned, when they saw one man shyly making eyes at his conversation partner who made a good attempt to hide behind a rather big potted plant.

"What's wrong with these people?"

Annabelles brows crinkled. "In the flower-language Hanakotoba, Amaririsu means shy – an aptly named town it seems. Maybe they take that a little too seriously here."

Mari hummed in affirmative.

"We should probably ask where we are and think about how we might get a new boat.", the whitenette said and scratched her head. She really needed a shower sometime soon. She didn't even want to know how she smelled to these flowery people with their perfumed handkerchiefs and riffled pristine white blouses.

They followed the road to a small fountain that was surrounded by blooming lilac flowers. Mari stifled a yawn. God, she was tired. She leaned on a lantern conveniently placed just a meter from Annabelle, who tried to speak to a local with a rather flamboyant jacket. She closed her eyes for only a moment.

"Hrmhrm."

Mari startled. "Oh, it's you.", she sighed.

Annabelle rolled her eyes. "Sleepyhead.", she snarked and her grin seemed almost fond. "So, we're apparently in the Flower Kingdom."

"Huh? Does it reach farther than the island or is the island parted in kingdoms?"

"No, there's only one kingdom here and it only encompasses the island. I think I read about it in one of my books.", the last bit was mumbled quietly and Mari had to strain, to hear her.

"I think there was some kind of legend of a demon or beast living on this island that terrorized the people until it was slain from a noble mob of people with pitchforks."

"Sounds like Dracula or Frankenstein's monster.", Mari muttered.

"Who?"

"Nevermind."

"Can they help us?"

"I don't think so", Annabelle shrugged. "We look like street urchins right now and we probably stink after days on the sea without a shower. Who'd help us like that?"

Mari made a face. "And what are we doing now?"

"You're the captain, you decide." Not this again. Mari almost groaned.

"But I do have an idea.", she tacked on and Mari seized the chance. "What idea?"

"I steal us a purse or two and we get a room somewhere in one of those over-flowery motels, shower, get a set of new clothes and then we explore the island a little. We might find a boat to steal."

She grimaced slightly, but when she spied another person with a gold-rimmed hat, she thought quietly to herself that these people really wouldn't be that much worse off with a few Beli less in their pockets.

"Okay. You try that."

* * *

A few minutes later saw both of them running like hell and getting chased by at least six people with pitchforks.

"I thought you were good at stealing!", Mari panted.

"I never said that!", Annabelle retorted. "Now run faster!"

And they did just that.

* * *

"What do we do now?", her captain asked and Annabelle carefully refrained from hitting her over the head. Not to mention that she would have to jump to accomplish that, Mari was about 1,70 meters, compared to Annabelles' measly 1,55 meters.

"We can go south. I saw a tower there. Maybe we can see a port from there."

"Okay."

They followed her compass for a while.

"We should stop and look for someplace to sleep.", Mari said suddenly. It was already quite dark and they could barely make out their own silhouettes. Annabelle agreed readily, she was rather tired and they might just get lost if they didn't have a little light to guide them.

They took a sharp turn to the left and waded through the greyish forms in a flower field. Annabelle spotted the tree first, it seemed pretty big and after making sure that there were no unwanted surprises – like a rabid badger hiding under the tree, they settled against each other. They were lucky to be in the west blue, Annabelle thought. They might have just frozen to death if they were in the north blue.

With this rather macabre thought, the blondes' eyes drifted closed.


	15. Scary Cellmates on the Island of Flowers

**Disclaimer: One Piece is not mine.**

 **Excuse the long wait, my dear readers! Thank you all for favouriting, following and of course commenting this story!**

* * *

Mari awoke slowly. Her head ached something fierce and she felt disoriented. Her eyes opened slowly, the lashes feeling crusty and like they were glued to her skin. Her throat was curiously dry and she coughed roughly.

God, she felt like shit.

She blinked a few times, and as soon as her eyes lost some of the blurriness, she took a look around. She felt her heart skip a beat in fright.

Oh.

They weren't leaned on the tree anymore. They were in some kind of dank, dark cell with only the flickering light of an oil lamp dangling off the ceiling. The room itself wasn't as small as she initially thought. It was sectioned in their – she'd spied Annabelle lying on her side – cell with iron bars, a small corridor and another cell.

She was sitting up, her hands tied up in iron shackles over her head and when she gingerly moved her head to the right she noticed another cell with strange looking bars – they seemed to be made of some sort of polished stone? – that encompassed the whole wall. She only saw darkness behind those bars, the flickering light of the lamp didn't reach all that far.

In front of her, behind the iron bars, a rickety old stool and a small table that housed an unlit candle stood at the stonewall and a closed wooden door prevented her from further investigation of their surroundings.

"Annabelle!", she whispered urgently. God, it was like they were in some kind of weird horror flick. In a second Count Dracula would swoop in and suck them dry or a scary looking, one eyed torturer would come through that door or- she forcibly cut off that train of thought.

There was no time to get irrationally scared, they had to get out of here. She thought of her old world and how they used to punish thieves in mediaeval times. If she remembered correctly, usually a hand got cut off. She shuddered. Ugh.

When her companion didn't move, she grew worried. She leaned back a little and tried to poke her with a foot. Her efforts earned her a tired grunt. She sighed. At least she wasn't dead.

"Annabelle", she repeated quietly and now a small voice answered.

"Captain?", she sounded weak and kind of fuzzy.

"Yeah, I'm here."

"Where are we?" The flickering silhouette of her friend sat up and took a cursory look around and tacked on a belated: "Fuck"

"Yepp"

"How do we get out of here?"

"Either we wait until someone comes and try to explain-"

"What should we explain? That we stole because we had no money? You know, that is usually the case with people who steal. They have no money."

"or", Mari emphasized, as if she hadn't heard, "we break out."

Annabelle nodded sagely. "Sound logic, that."

Mari opened her mouth to elaborate on her plan to bust them out – consisting of cracking the lock with her powers and then finding a way out of this place ASAP, when a croaking voice interrupted her.

"hungry… so very hungry…I need… human…"

Annabelle and Mari shared a look.

"MONSTER!", Annabelle shrieked and tried to shrink back as much into her corner as she could, pinning fearful eyes in the direction of the spooky voice – namely the adjoining cell.

There was a pause. Then:

"Idiot.", the voice croaked.

They heard shifting and rustling and then a figure draped in a tattered Victorian era dress crawled into the only stripe of light that managed to cut through a small part of the darkness in the other cell.

It was a woman.

She was horribly dirty and her skin seemed almost translucent in the places the grime didn't cling. The nails on her bare feet and on her hands were cracked and her pale, bloodless lips horribly chapped. Her hair was a birds' nest, long black hair either ruffled in places or hanging limp in others. But the thing that really gave Mari pause were her eyes. They gleamed in a pure and fathomless black with no whites showing.

And they looked hungry. Horribly hungry.

Mari drew back sharply and almost hit her head on the wall behind her. The motion caused a violent streak of pain in the forefront of her head anyways.

What the hell happened to her to make her look so famished?

* * *

Annabelle bit down hard on her upper lip to reign in another shriek.

The woman before them looked positively ghastly. The blonde had seen a lot of shit in her time as a low-life pirate and yes, she could recognize the signs of malnourishment and maybe other kinds of abuse on her impromptu cell neighbour, but to be in the danger of having the same fate, made the experience of seeing that a lot worse.

She chanced a look at her captain. Mari looked curiously composed, but well, that might just be her face. Annabelle could scarcely remember a moment where her captain didn't look either bored or tired. Since her captain didn't seem to be inclined to start a conversation with the human being in their adjourning cell, she'd have to, didn't she? The other woman seemed otherwise preoccupied – she looked disturbingly like she wanted to eat them.

"Who the fuck are you?", the blonde started in one of her more authoritative tones.

The voice that answered was still croaky and it seemed to require an awful amount of power to just form the words, but it sounded very cultured.

"My name is Morticia Mina Elizabeth van Darkensteyn. 20 years ago, I was the owner of this castle."

She blinked. Well, that was a mouthful.

"You don't look much older than 25. Your captivity would then have started at a very young age.", her captain said and she had to agree with this statement. The woman before them, Morticia, did seem rather thin and the dirt didn't help all that much with estimating her age, but if you squinted you saw how youthful she looked.

A weak laugh answered her inquiry.

"I am much older than I look."

Vague, much?

"Okay", Annabelle interrupted further questions of that sort. "So, you know where we are? You probably also know who holds us prisoner or am I wrong?"

"Maybe."

"The fuck 'maybe'? Lady, we really don't want to end up like you did – no offense."

"None taken."

"And we sure as hell won't stay here!"

"And how do you intend to escape?", the brunette asked and her black eyes blinked languidly, only to return to their hungry staring. "I have been kept here for these 20 years and I have tried to escape more than once. How would a vertically challenged individual like you and that chained white-haired ninny like back there manage that?"

Both Annabelle and Mari chimed in with an indignant 'Hey!' at the respective insults offered.

"Well, that's gonna be fucking easy!", Annabelle drawled vindictively. She really didn't like that woman. And maybe, just maybe, she really wanted to show that bitch where she could put all those insults and her disbelief.

"Oh really?", the woman's voice was condescending and that did rub the blonde the wrong way. She hated being spoken down to, which was a regular occurrence, what with her having the body of a twelve-year-old.

"Captain! Get us out of here!"

Before the addressed white-head could react, the door to the prison holdings crashed against the wall and a lumbering figure squeezed through the narrow doorway.

* * *

Mari heard a terrible hissing emitting from their new acquaintance and she noticed with growing dread that the other woman wasn't just afraid of the person in the doorway. She was terrified. Her eyes were open wide in terror and Mari was certain that – if one would be able to see them in all that black – her pupils would be the size of pinpricks.

Those weren't normal signs for someone who wasn't regularly hit – or worse. Morticia had most probably been mistreated.

The whitenette remembered watching a documentary over a slave-ring that traded young women. She didn't exactly remember every fact of that documentary, but one picture stood clear in the forefront of her mind: A young woman, not much older than eighteen, blonde-haired and with green eyes, her face beaten black and blue, lips split and eyes blown so wide that they seemed to take in most parts of her face. She'd looked terrified and hopeless and Mari remembered the shudder that crept down her spine when she'd seen that face.

And this face. This face right there, of a woman that seemed to be so very aristocratic and cultured, even in a state of yearlong imprisonment, showed pure horror and hopelessness and even if she wasn't all that touchy feely, wishy washy normally, her heart _ached_ at that look.

And suddenly she had this fierce longing to _tear-rip-shred_ those that managed to break this proud creature before her.

"Hello ladiesh", the voice was oddly high-pitched for the grossly swollen form of the middle-aged man that trotted into the room.

The Victorian lady shuffled backwards into the shadows and out of their line of sight while the fat man lumbered in front of their cell. He held an oil lamp aloft and held it in their direction, illuminating the darkish parts of their cell.

"Yuh the new ones, aren'tsh yah?" He had a strange accent, as if his tongue was too big for his mouth and constantly laid over his teeth while he talked.

Mari observed Annabelle as she drew her small frame up, but shook at the leering gaze of the guard.

"And what about it, fucker?", the blonde hissed.

The guard gurgled and it took a few seconds for Mari to realize that he was laughing.

"Yuh'll shee, I'll ripsh shat tongueh out of yah moush, misshy, yet.", he giggled. His gaze turned to her.

"And shou, she quite one shere, you're propahsly gonna be a playshing for tha master Todd yet, but only after me – I'm she firsht to play, shey shait.", he proudly declared and Mari frowned.

Normally she should feel very much afraid at the threat, but she didn't feel all that much. There was a calm, cold feeling in her mind. She felt collected, as if she were remote-controlling her body. There was only a quiet, measured rage that tinted her vision vaguely grey around the edges. But she wasn't angry that the man had threatened her, no, it was that he _dared_ to threaten what was distinctly _hers_.

Some part of her included the other woman into that calculation, and when the guard trotted off to the other cage, hanging the oil lamp onto a hook on the wall and consequently illuminating the cell and its inhabitant, and grabbed a long fire poker and advanced on Morticia – curled up, and hiding her head in her arms - mutilation clear on his mind, and the black-haired woman gave a whimper, something in her snapped.

She grasped the floating mass in her belly, brought it up to her arms and guided it around the neck of the guard. There was no forewarning for the others, no forewarning for her, no conscious thought. There was only rage.

And then, a sharp snap, and the guard lay on the ground, his head bent at an unnatural angle.

She felt cold. She lifted her eyes to assess the state of the black-haired woman and met ridiculously wide eyes.

Morticia didn't ask _how_ , there was only a quiet kind of gratefulness suffusing her black orbs.

Mari blinked once, twice. She nodded.

Then, very suddenly, reality aligned itself and she felt very sick.

Oh god.

She'd just _killed_ someone.


End file.
